Decisions, decisions… IBM hopes to lend speed and clarity to decision making with its new Analytical Decision Management software, which utilizes predictive analytics.

IBM is delivering new predictive analytics software aimed at providing businesses with tools that enable instantaneous, insight-driven decisions in real-time.

Called IBM Analytical Decision Management, the software applies automated analytics processes to a wide variety of data, regardless of where it resides, according to the company. It integrates into an organization's computing environment and applies predictive analytics, local rules, scoring and a dose of Big Data processing to generate appropriate courses of action.

The software employs IBM's InfoSphere Streams and Entity Analytics technologies to analyze Big Data and generate up to thousands of decisions per second. Entity Analytics acts as a classification engine that can identify and match entities -- essentially people, places or things -- adding nuance and context to the platform as it ingests more data.

Another component is a new social network analytics capability that monitors social media influencers and conversations centered on a topic. Companies can use the feature to gauge their social media influence and glean insights into customer behavior.

The result, according to Deepak Advani, vice president Business Analytics Products and Solutions at IBM, is near-instantaneous business guidance that can have a big impact on a company's responsiveness to customers.

"In today's marketplace, when a customer says they're not happy, companies must decide how to react - not later that day, or in an hour, but instantly. With these new technologies, winning organizations can embed analytics into under-served areas of their business, empowering all employees to make information-based decisions," said Advani in a company release.

Accelerated Analytics Momentum

Analytical Decision Management is part of IBM's Smarter Analytics Signature Solutions, a suite of products and services that Big Blue launched in March. The product and services slate debuted with fraud detection, social media signal monitoring and financial performance analysis.

In the months since, IBM has been rapidly building its analytics technology portfolio. And it doesn’t mind striking a few deals to make it happen.